The Youth Retreat is a live-in mentor program designed to impact youth; helping inspire them to overcome life’s challenges to be the very best they can be.
Each day we have multiple sessions on Horse & Rider Training, and Career Choice/School & Personal Development. We also have daily activities which bring everyone together for lots of laughs and healthy interaction.
A healthy dose of work ethic & team work is also given daily.

Everyone’s journey is unique and there are many different reasons for coming. Some are wanting to know more about the horse industry and how to train horses & riders, others suffer from anxiety, fear or depression. Some are being bullied at school, some have low self-worth and others just need help deciding what career path to take in life.
Everyone is welcomed in like family. When you arrive you are part of the “Free Riding Team”.

This program is very personal. We learn together, work together, sleep together and LOVE LIFE together.
Each Youth Retreat’s activities are slightly different depending on what location we are based at.

In addition to the daily sessions we visit different local attractions such as: wild life parks, Beaches, National Parks, Movies, Markets, Horse Shows, Bowling, Ice-Cream parlours, museums, laser tag, pools and much more.
Team work is essential here and everyone is expected to help out from, setting up for the events, lessons, packing up camp, cooking, cleaning, looking after the horses and other daily chores. Everything is a learning experience.

The On Tour Stay sessions dive deep into MANY topics effecting teenagers that are put under 3 main categories. We do not guarantee to cover every sub- topic listed but do our best.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Anxiety

Fear

Anger

Bullying

Confidence

Self-Worth

Gaining friends

Loosing friends

Not fitting in

Peer Pressure

Work Ethic

Healthy Relationships

Dangerous Relationships

Failure

Pain

Loss

Stress

Forgiveness

Personal Strengths

Home Life Struggles

How to be successful

HORSE & RIDER TRAINING

Horse Care

Jump Training

Gaining a bond with your horse

Fixing problem horses & issues

Free Riding

The reality of the horse industry

Bare back balance

Trick training

Rider confidence

Jump setup and striding

CAREER CHOICE/SCHOOL

What school subjects to take

Wanting to leave school early

University

Not knowing what to do with my life

Becoming self employed

Creating a brand, logo, clothing

Making it in the horse industry

How to get work experience

Finding my strengths

DO YOU TAKE EVERYONE?
The On Tour Stay is not for everyone.
We do not take anyone who has a history of physical violence, drinking, drugs or school expulsion.
We DO NOT take anyone who does not want to be here.
Please DO NOT send your child unless they are beyond excited and want to come.
We cannot force anyone to change or to take help. We can only give information and guidance.

BULLYING
The On Tour Stay is a safe environment.
We have a ZERO tolerance policy on bullying which is very strictly monitored.
Our rule is that if anyone is caught bullying they are sent home.

TIME OFF SCHOOL
Every school we have worked with so far has 100% been on board and counted the Youth Retreat as valuable work experience, So you don’t need to worry about ‘missing’ school. There is also time for study or homework during the week.

MY TEEN HAS HUGE ANXIETY ABOUT BEING AWAY FROM HOME
Anxiety and panic attacks are VERY common and we are here any day or night to help them through it.
Weather it is 1pm or 1am we are committed to helping your teen develop and mature their coping skills not only with Anxiety but all emotions they will face that affects their quality of life.

DO YOU HAVE BOYS ON YOUTH RETREATS?
While our intention is not to discriminate we have rules and guidelines to follow for obvious reasons.
We currently do not have the facilities to have boys on tour.
Please feel free to contact Alycia directly if you would like to discuss your case further.

HOW TO BOOK
Dates and locations are found on the free riding website www.freeridingnz.com
Your space is ONLY reserved once payment has been made (partial or full)
Payments are non-refundable regardless of any reason however they can be used at a later date if needed or passed on/sold to someone else.
If you leave early for any reason the booking is non-refundable however you are allowed to come back at any time for the remainder of your stay.

Please note- This is not a horse riding camp where your teen will be riding however there is a lot of horse interaction and learning from Alycia directly as she demonstrates and covers many horse topics. For an in-depth information pack or to ask a question please email info@freeridingnz.com

To purchase tickets select the number of tickets you would like, add your information and click Add to Cart “This is located below the map under Tickets”